Blog Post:One of our core content topics for June was “Personalization.” Adobe experts shared weekly “Quick Tips” to help you get started on your website personalization initiatives, we launched our Ready, Set, Personalize! Sweepstakes and shared great personalization-related articles and opinion pieces that we curated for you and shared via our @adobedigmktg Twitter account and Facebook page. We’ve compiled all of June’s great content here in this blog post for easy reference.
ADOBE QUICK TIPS: PERSONALIZATIONWeek One: Embarking on a personalization strategy? The first step is to analyze your visitors’ digital journeys, identifying the points on the path where they are converting. Look at your analytics reports to identify visitor interaction points such as the homepage, search results page, landing page banner, add to cart button, cross-sell promotions, etc. Then ask yourself: where do you have the most potential to grow conversion or engagement by delivering a personalized experience? Determine key metrics related to those interaction points that you have the ability to influence. The next step will be to dig deeper into the data that you use for modeling and/or segmentation…but more to come on that in future personalization Quick Tips!
Kevin Lindsay is the director of Conversion Product Marketing for Adobe’s Digital Marketing Suite and helps businesses optimize digital experiences for maximum customer engagement and conversion.Week Two: A robust personalization strategy should include offering extremely targeted, relevant website search results. Best practices to keep in mind:
1) The search box should be one of the most prominent elements on your homepage, second only to your company logo. Visitors who search on your site are 3x more likely to convert than those who only use navigation and browse functionality!
2) Merchandise key content and products in your site search results. Push high-margin items or highest converters to the top of the search results to help drive more conversion and engagement.
3) Lastly, use your analytics data to do some detective work. Are there specific search terms that are rendering null results? Make adjustments to display similar products or consider bulking up your product inventory so that no search comes up empty.
Francesca Lohman is a senior product marketing manager for Adobe’s Digital Marketing Suite. She specializes in helping businesses optimize site search and onsite navigation, retail merchandising strategies, and online cross-sell and upsell opportunities.Week Three: Email remains a preferred communication channel and has evolved into an amazing channel for brands to deliver meaningful personalization. The key is to move beyond "spray and pray" broadcast messaging practices of the past by combining the assets of subscriber data from the email service provider with deep digital behavior, and dynamic content. As you gain insights into your customers’ interests and preferences, personalize the campaign and speak to them as individuals. Consider recommending products and content to increase average order value. Integrate dynamic content and immersive product views to increase engagement and drive subscribers further down the path to conversion.
Chris Parkin is the director of Strategic Alliances and Genesis Solutions for Adobe and works with partners and customers to improve digital experiences and ROI by bringing the Adobe Digital Marketing Suite together with third-party solutions.Week Four: Automated recommendations, like "people who bought this also bought that,” should be in more places on your site than just the product page. Show recommendations to returning visitors and returning purchasers right on the homepage so they can immediately dive into relevant products. Show them what they bought last time, and suggest add-on items. Did they abandon their cart? Show them the item they abandoned—and similar ones—to get them right back on the purchase track. Recommendations are also great for weekly emails—remind people what they like on your site and bring them back in to take a closer look.
Kimen Field leads the product development strategy for Adobe Test&Target and Adobe Recommendations. She is a subject matter expert in website testing, content targeting, behavioral targeting, personalization, optimization and Stanford Football trivia.
Week Five: Creating relevant marketing campaigns for numerous customer segments is hard; doing so for each individual is even harder…actually, nearly impossible. You’ve invested in great creative content to engage the visitor, and great data to understand and know his or her motivations and interests. So why not let the data do the hard work and decide what the most relevant content and offers are to serve to the customer at the detailed level?
Use marketing content that uses one banner, ad or email campaign template, and dynamically assembles the perfect creative asset combination and permutation – images, copy, video, and even layout – in real-time based on observed on- and off-site behaviors. This will ensure you get the right content, to the right person, at the right time—increasing user engagement and ultimately conversion.
Natalie Lacuesta Byrum is product marketing manager for Scene7 dynamic media solutions at Adobe and helps customers dynamically deliver rich, personalized experiences across channels.ARTICLES AND BLOG POSTSDigital Marketing Blog: Ready, Set, Personalize!http://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/personalization/ready-set-personalize/Digital Marketing Blog: Let’s Get Personalhttp://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/personalization/introducing-a-new-personalization-solution-from-adobe/AllThingsD: E-Commerce Accelerating Due to Personalization, Pinterest, and iPadhttp://allthingsd.com/20120604/e-commerce-accelerating-due-to-personalization-pinterest-and-ipad/Internet Retailer: Top e-retailers have site search and performance down pat…http://www.internetretailer.com/2012/05/01/top-e-retailers-have-site-search-and-performance-down-patEconsultancy: House of Fraser: digital is key to personalising in-store experiencehttp://econsultancy.com/us/blog/10105-house-of-fraser-digital-is-key-to-personalising-in-store-experienceCRM.com: 10 Requirements for Rich Content Optimization and Personalizationhttp://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/Web-Exclusives/Viewpoints/10-Requirements-for-Rich-Content-Optimization-and-Personalization-82779.aspxEconsultancy: The Future of Digital Marketing [Infographic]http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/10133-the-future-of-digital-marketing-infographic?
Search CRM: Adobe stresses personalization at digital marketing conferencehttp://searchcrm.techtarget.com/news/2240158474/Adobe-stresses-personalization-at-digital-marketing-conferencePhilips – Summit EMEA videohttp://youtu.be/7JKJHJDryMwTarget Readiness Studyhttp://www.razorfish5.com/articles/ownedtargeting.aspx#01Digital Marketing Blog: Adobe & ExactTarget = Personalized Engagement; 350% Increase in Revenue Per Email for F+W Mediahttp://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/analytics/adobe-exacttarget-personalized-engagement-350-increase-in-revenue-per-email-for-fw-media/ClickZ: 8 B2B Email Marketing Tricks of the Tradehttp://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2187539/b2b-email-marketing-tricks-tradeCMO.com: Targeting Readiness Study Shows CMOs Missing Their Markhttp://www.cmo.com/targeting/targeting-readiness-study-shows-cmos-missing-their-markBrooksBell Inc Blog: Using Personas More Effectively to Target Your Online Segmentshttp://brooksbell.com/blog/2012/06/using-personas-to-more-effectively-target-your-online-segmentsThe Next Web: Online Publisher’s Association survey paints a portrait of the US tablet userhttp://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/06/18/online-publishers-association-survey-paints-a-portrait-of-the-us-tablet-user/
Let us know what you thought about the personalization content last month. In July we’ll focus on tips and advice to help you build and maintain a culture of optimization at your organization. Keep an eye here on our blog, our Adobe Digital Marketing Facebook page and @adobedigmktg Twitter account. Let us know what you think and how we can provide more helpful information next month.
Author:Dariana Ross
Date Created:July 4, 2012
Date Published:July 4, 2012
Headline:June 2012 Personalization Round-up: Must-Read Tips and Best Practices from Digital Marketing Experts
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Keywords:
Publisher:Adobe
Image:https://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/wp-content/uploads/no-image/no-image.jpg

June 2012 Personalization Round-up: Must-Read Tips and Best Practices from Digital Marketing Experts

One of our core content topics for June was “Personalization.” Adobe experts shared weekly “Quick Tips” to help you get started on your website personalization initiatives, we launched our Ready, Set, Personalize! Sweepstakes and shared great personalization-related articles and opinion pieces that we curated for you and shared via our @adobedigmktg Twitter account and Facebook page. We’ve compiled all of June’s great content here in this blog post for easy reference.

Week One: Embarking on a personalization strategy? The first step is to analyze your visitors’ digital journeys, identifying the points on the path where they are converting. Look at your analytics reports to identify visitor interaction points such as the homepage, search results page, landing page banner, add to cart button, cross-sell promotions, etc. Then ask yourself: where do you have the most potential to grow conversion or engagement by delivering a personalized experience? Determine key metrics related to those interaction points that you have the ability to influence. The next step will be to dig deeper into the data that you use for modeling and/or segmentation…but more to come on that in future personalization Quick Tips!

1) The search box should be one of the most prominent elements on your homepage, second only to your company logo. Visitors who search on your site are 3x more likely to convert than those who only use navigation and browse functionality!

2) Merchandise key content and products in your site search results. Push high-margin items or highest converters to the top of the search results to help drive more conversion and engagement.

3) Lastly, use your analytics data to do some detective work. Are there specific search terms that are rendering null results? Make adjustments to display similar products or consider bulking up your product inventory so that no search comes up empty.

Week Three: Email remains a preferred communication channel and has evolved into an amazing channel for brands to deliver meaningful personalization. The key is to move beyond “spray and pray” broadcast messaging practices of the past by combining the assets of subscriber data from the email service provider with deep digital behavior, and dynamic content. As you gain insights into your customers’ interests and preferences, personalize the campaign and speak to them as individuals. Consider recommending products and content to increase average order value. Integrate dynamic content and immersive product views to increase engagement and drive subscribers further down the path to conversion.

Chris Parkin is the director of Strategic Alliances and Genesis Solutions for Adobe and works with partners and customers to improve digital experiences and ROI by bringing the Adobe Digital Marketing Suite together with third-party solutions.

Week Four: Automated recommendations, like “people who bought this also bought that,” should be in more places on your site than just the product page. Show recommendations to returning visitors and returning purchasers right on the homepage so they can immediately dive into relevant products. Show them what they bought last time, and suggest add-on items. Did they abandon their cart? Show them the item they abandoned—and similar ones—to get them right back on the purchase track. Recommendations are also great for weekly emails—remind people what they like on your site and bring them back in to take a closer look.

Kimen Field leads the product development strategy for Adobe Test&Target and Adobe Recommendations. She is a subject matter expert in website testing, content targeting, behavioral targeting, personalization, optimization and Stanford Football trivia.
Week Five: Creating relevant marketing campaigns for numerous customer segments is hard; doing so for each individual is even harder…actually, nearly impossible. You’ve invested in great creative content to engage the visitor, and great data to understand and know his or her motivations and interests. So why not let the data do the hard work and decide what the most relevant content and offers are to serve to the customer at the detailed level?

Use marketing content that uses one banner, ad or email campaign template, and dynamically assembles the perfect creative asset combination and permutation – images, copy, video, and even layout – in real-time based on observed on- and off-site behaviors. This will ensure you get the right content, to the right person, at the right time—increasing user engagement and ultimately conversion.

Let us know what you thought about the personalization content last month. In July we’ll focus on tips and advice to help you build and maintain a culture of optimization at your organization. Keep an eye here on our blog, our Adobe Digital Marketing Facebook page and @adobedigmktg Twitter account. Let us know what you think and how we can provide more helpful information next month.

Dariana Ross

Dariana is a senior public relations manager at Adobe and manages communications for Adobe's conversion product group, comprised of Test&Target, Search&Promote and Recommendations. She always reads product reviews before buying online and has never played Farmville.